Sphyrna lewini

The scalloped hammerhead is a species of hammerhead shark in the family Sphyrnidae. It was originally known as Zygaena lewini. The Greek word sphyrna translates into "hammer" in English, referring to the shape of this shark's head, which is its most distinguishing characteristic. The shark's eyes and nostrils are at the tips of the extensions. It is a fairly large hammerhead, but is still smaller than both the great and smooth hammerheads.

Sphyrna lewini

Kris-Mikael Krister · CC BY 2.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
scalloped hammerheadPBDB
Sits inside
SphyrnaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Carcharhiniformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Carcharhiniformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Carcharhiniformes

Time the record covers

At least 14 million years on record.

The record covers at least 15.98 Mya to 1.8 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 774 ka.

Oligocene — about 0 of 14 occurrencesMiocene — about 11 of 14 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 2 of 14 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 1 of 14 occurrencesPleistocene24–23 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences10–9.6 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences9.6–8.8 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences8.8–8.0 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences8.0–7.3 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences7.3–6.5 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences6.5–5.7 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences5.7–4.9 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences4.9–4.2 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences4.2–3.4 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.8–1.1 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.1–274 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences15.98 Mya1.8 Mya23.5 Mya274 ka

14 occurrences of Sphyrna lewini on record, most of them in the Miocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

14 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

8 formations

Chucunaque — 9.13°N, 78.75°WChucunaque — 9.15°N, 78.79°WYorktown — 35.36°N, 76.82°WChengapara — 25.17°N, 90.67°ETirabuzón — 27.37°N, 112.29°WMiramar — 5.19°S, 80.63°WChagres Sandstone — 9.28°N, 80.04°WLiuchungchi — 23.44°N, 120.59°EBhuban — 23.75°N, 92.68°E

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The named rock units Sphyrna lewini has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Sphyrna lewini and its relatives

Miocene

Where Sphyrna lewini and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

531 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 9 sites for Sphyrna lewini, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

10 references

Each of the 14 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Sphyrna lewini

Credit
Kris-Mikael Krister
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Sphyrna lewini was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itSphyrna through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Griffith and Smith 1834)